William John Fielding

“ While the logical faculty may or may not, in their case, be well developed, intuition is always strongly in evidence. Like a woman they read characters at a glance, and know, without knowing how, what is transpiring in the mental processes of others. Naturally, men of this kind have a peculiar aptitude for nursing and administering to the needs of people. A Swiss writer on this subject has expressed himself thus: "Happy, indeed, is that man who has won a real Urning for his friend—he walks on roses, without ever having to fear the thorns." ”

“ And he added: "Can there ever be a more perfect sick nurse than an Urning?"
The invert has a strongly developed artist nature, with the artist's perception and sensibility. De Joux, who writes on the whole favorably of the Uranian men and women, says of the former: "They are enthusiastic for poetry and music, are often eminently skilful in the fine arts, and are overcome with emotion and sympathy at the least occurrence. Their sensitiveness, their endless tenderness for children, their love of flowers, their great pity for beggars and crippled folk are truly womanly." ”

“ De Joux, who has already been quoted on the subject, expresses the finer sensibilities of the superior type of Urning, and his consciousness of the same, in the following words: "It is true that we are often inferior to normal men in force of will, worldly wisdom, and sense of duty; but on the other hand, in depth and delicacy of feeling and every virtue of the heart, we are far superior. We cannot love women, but we lament with them, and help them on the hearth and by the cradle, in need and loneliness, as their most unselfish friends. ”

“ In a sense, then, we may say that the so-called Intermediate Sex is older and nearer to nature than the differentiated male and female sexes. It may be considered a modern holdover, or vestige, of the bisexual character typical of primitive beings and organisms. But when found in the genus homo when not debauched by a vicious environment or distorted by an unfavorable heredity—it may, as we have seen, reach the highest stage of human fruition. ”

“ The homosexuality flourished as the natural accompaniment of man's love for himself—that is, of his own sex—was an incidental result which does not affect the real significance of the Greek achievement, nor alter the greatness of their ideal aim, the creation of the highest human values under the conception of ideal love, and the effort at its achievement in the world of reality. ”

“ The medieval disputes as to whether woman had a soul, or, indeed, whether she was really a human being at all; the hideous persecution and burning of women as witches and vampires, which was participated in by church, state and populace,—all of these practices had behind them in some degree a neurotic fear of woman as the sexual partner. Man feared his inferiority, and he compensated for that fear by subjecting, and often eliminating, the object of his phobia. ”

“ The acute panic of the personality is due to the perverse sexual cravings which threaten to overcome the ego, and disestablish the individual's self-control. At the same time, the affections for winning social esteem are pushed into an eccentric adjustment. The weakness of the ego may be attributed to fatigue, debilitating illness, loss of the love object, homesickness, misfortunes, imposition on the part of a superior, or erotic companions. As the individual shows his eccentricities and irritability, he is often teased and tormented by his fellows. ”

“ Every young individual unconsciously patterns its conduct, especially in the matter of its attitudes toward persons of the opposite sex, after some one in the home environment. When the boy, for instance, is raised under conditions which cause him to pattern his actions after the mother-model, to feel himself woman-like, he will unconsciously and automatically imitate feminine ways and adopt woman's attitudes, in the sexual sphere as well as otherwise. ”

“ Cruelty on the part of boys at school (bullying) is nearly always a sexual manifestation which, like homosexuality, should be only a passing phase, which is later repressed into the unconscious. The monks who denied themselves sexual intercourse, but found pleasure in flogging themselves or others, form an example of the way that sexual energy, when denied its normal course, finds a more primitive outlet. A schoolmaster with repressed and unconscious homosexuality will often be noted for his flogging proclivities, and so forth. ”

“ Thus, in neuroses, homosexuality, even when carried into practice, is always found to be a symbol by means of which it is sought to place the individual's own superiority beyond question. This mechanism is similar to that of a religious psychosis, in which the fancied nearness to God has the significance of an elevation. In a sense, the religious fanatic identifies himself with God, just as the non-religious psychopath may identify himself with Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander the Great, or some other character in history whose personality completely dominated its environment. ”

“ But even in the highest form of life, there are the vestigal organs and characters of the opposite sex, so that while the normal human being has a definite sexual category, it is just as truly apparent that no individual is wholly of one sexual character. The most masculine man is not one hundred per cent masculine, nor is the most feminine woman one hundred per cent feminine. ”

“ An individual, so thwarted, attains the age of maturity lacking the esthetic, ideal, pure and undefiled longing which leads to the other sex. At the same time, the heat of sensuous passion cools off while the inclination toward the other sex is significantly weakened. ”

“ Young artists, poets and musicians in particular often show, I have found, a strong tendency to masturbation, and this agrees with the pronounced bisexuality of all artists, which has been particularly pointed out by Fliess. The youths of this type are often so delicate and sensitive that they see in the sexual act only animal brutality and hide their own sexuality from the whole world. Among masturbators we find the champions of truth, the over-moralistic preachers, the ethical reformers and dreamers. ”

“ Further, one does not repress a person when one identifies one's self. Identification is direct love; differentiation means repression. Where homosexuals (male) identify themselves with the mother—as many of them do—there may also be present a repression of the father-ideal.
Alfred Adler, whose conception of the neurosis is based on the hypothesis of "the male protest" also associates homosexuality with this principle. In his opinion, all reactions and protective constructions or fixations of the neurotic are based on the wish to be "a complete being" as he sees it. ”

“ If this sublimation fails him he becomes neurotic, since no person overcomes completely his homosexual tendencies. Everyone carries within himself the predisposition to neurosis. The stronger the repression, the stronger is also the neurotic reaction which may be powerful enough in its extreme form to lead to paranoia. If the heterosexuality is repressed, homosexuality comes to the forefront. In the case of the homosexual, the repressed and incompletely conquered heterosexuality furnishes the disposition toward neurosis. ”

“ If the youth has been reared in a healthy, constructive environment, conducive to proper sublimation of his primitive sexual tendencies, and particularly if his libido is not excessive, he may scarcely be conscious of his homosexual impulses. On the other hand, if he is endowed with an unusually strong hereditary sexual constitution, or if the repression and sublimation have been faulty in his upbringing, the homosexual tendencies may reflect themselves in various ways in his conscious attitudes. ”

“ The Scythians so afflicted, however, believing their impotence due to divine punishment and beyond human aid, donned the garb of females and lived as women among women.
It is thought that fear of excess population on the part of the early Greeks was one factor in turning their erotic interests from women to young men. As the so-called Greek states of that period consisted principally of cities with very limited capacity for sustenance, the problem of feeding the population was one of some concern. Aristotle, on this account, advised the men to shun their wives and to indulge in boy-love. ”

“ While there is a great deal of theoretical abstraction in such a broad survey of the sexual life, nevertheless, there are enough concrete facts at hand to make the conclusions as accurate and serviceable as any that are to be obtained within the realm of actual clinical practice. The sexual urge is by no means a simple, direct manifestation, but consists of many partial and often conflicting impulses, with ramifications that extend into every channel and byway of life. ”

“ The mind of the male urning (characteristic of its feminine bias) is generally intuitive and instinctive in its perceptions, with more or less artistic feeling. In extreme types, we find excessive sentimentality, an individual mincing in gait and manners, something of a chatter-box, with a tendency to be skilful with the needle and in woman's work, sometimes taking pleasure in dressing in women's clothes.
In the case of the female, we note the opposite characteristics. Her mind is more logical, scientific and precise than usual with the normal woman. ”

“ In all the neurotics without exception there is evident feelings of inversion in the unconscious psychic life, fixation of libido on persons of the same sex. It is impossible, without a deep and searching discussion, adequately to appreciate the significance of this factor for the formation of the picture of the disease; but it may be safely asserted that the unconscious propensity to inversion is never wanting and is particularly of immense service in explaining male hysteria. ”

“ They will in due course be outgrown and replaced by other manifestations of sexual interest, unless unwise methods of repression are used.
HOMOSEXUALITY means a state in which one is sexually attracted toward members of the same sex. This is normally a primitive characteristic of childhood, which prevails up to the time of adolescence, but which may persist in adult life. Some degree of it does normally hold over in every adult, but it remains in the background of the unconscious, and is sublimated along social lines. ”

“ All infants and small children are autosexual, and evidence a sexual interest in their bodies. Sometimes this is true in only a slight, almost casual, degree; other times it is pronounced, and becomes a problem. There is often a tendency toward automatic masturbation, or other forms of so-called sexual precocity, which may unduly alarm parents. However, it is well for parents to know that these manifestations are not abnormal—unless grossly over-emphasized—but are merely indicative of the passing stage of autosexuality. ”

“ To illustrate this point, if a boy is brought up by a widowed mother, let us say, in a home environment in which there is no male present, the young boy, impelled to imitate some one in order to establish a standard of conduct, copies his mother's attitude of physical indifference to women and physical interest in men (if she is a normally constituted woman) . ”

“ It is Carpenter's opinion that the defect of the male Uranian, or Urning, is not sensuality—but rather sentimentality. The lower, more ordinary types of Urning are often extremely sentimental; the superior type strangely, almost incredibly emotional; but neither as a rule (though, of course, there must be exceptions) are so sensual as the average normal man.
"The immense capacity of emotional love represents, of course, a great driving force. Whether in the individual or in society, love is eminently creative. ”

“ Now, the absence of a father in the house, or the presence of a father of weak character, who suffers in comparison with the mother, tends to force the youth to make his ego-ideal identification with the mother, with results that are not conducive to normality in the sexual life. ”

“ However, in addition to being a fallacious conception, it has the further discredit of probably having wrought great damage to masturbating youths in giving them a false and hopeless impression of their actual situation. If a youth in his effort to overcome masturbation, believes himself, in addition, to be a predestined victim of homosexuality—especially with the prevailing social stigma which that condition carries—the injurious effect may quite conceivably be disastrous. ”

“ Sexual parts and genital glands cannot determine homosexuality in those possessing typical normal male genitalia and testicles; neither can the brain itself be the determining factor in genuine homosexuality, because homosexuality cannot be rooted out by the strongest conscious and unconscious heterosexual influences brought to bear upon thought and phantasy,—the condition developing in spite of such influences. ”

“ Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the greatest of contemporary authorities on the sex question in all its phases, is convinced that homosexuality is a normal state, and that genuine homosexuality is always an inborn condition. ”

“ This conception is universal and is found in all periods of history. As Adler states, "They emerge in the most sublime and lowest creations of art, have a place in the thoughts and efforts of the wisest, and create in man and in society a constant predisposition which develops suspicious and cautious traits, in order always to keep in touch with the enemy and to be in good time for the defense against knavish attacks. It is an error to think that it is only the man who harbors distrust of the sexual partner. ”

“ Freud has demonstrated how neurosis is definitely connected with some phase of the sexual instinct—often the suppression of its normal manifestations. In addition to that, he has shown that the symptoms of neurosis only too frequently represent the converted expression of impulses which in a broader sense may be designated as perverse, if they could manifest themselves directly in phantasies and acts without deviating from consciousness. ”

“ In this respect, the homosexual had characteristics in common with the primitive gods, which probably accounts for the ancients venerating their inverts.
Bloch says on this score: "This riddle, which despite all our efforts, present-day science has not yet satisfactorily solved, must to the primitive intelligence have appeared even more inexplicable than to us; and a man born with the inclination toward his own sex must have been regarded as something extraordinary, as one of those strange freaks of Nature which among Primitives are so easily accounted divine marvels and honored as such. ”

“ Among males, he classifies the normal man as the "Dioning," and the invert as the "Urning." [1] Urnings are subdivided into several groups. First, those who are thoroughly manly in appearance and mental habit and character ("Mannlings") and who tend to love softer and younger specimens of their own sex; second, those who are effeminate in appearance and cast of mind ("Weiblings") , who love rougher and older men; third, those who are of medium type ("Zwischen Urnings") and love young men. ”

“ Young boys and young girls usually have little interest in the opposite sex—in fact, are frequently quite scornful of them. On the other hand, they form strong friendships with members of their own sex, and, as is well known, when their sexual interests have not been successfully sublimated, engage in mutual sexual practices and masturbation. ”

“ This explanation, of course, leaves entirely out of consideration the innumerable persons who have masturbated in childhood and have become normal heterosexual adults.
"Nothing is more likely," states Krafft-Ebing, "than masturbation so to disturb and occasionally thwart all noble emotions at the source as they arise spontaneously out of the sexual feeling. The habit robs the nascent feeling of charm and beauty, leaving behind only the husk of grossly animal craving for sexual gratification. ”